As a followup to Part 1, here are my observations on the mirrorless camera having used it for a few more months (and for long periods instead of my old DSLR).
Pros:
Unfortunately, this list is currently still a lot smaller than it should probably be... especially given the price tag on this thing.
1) As mentioned last time, the overall improved sharpness + richness of colour range the sensor are capturing are a definite improvement. Especially loving being able to use decent / normal-ish shutter-speeds that I want to be using at night, and *still* getting the shots with reasonable quality is something that's been a real benefit of using this at night and/or in marginal lighting conditions
2) As expected, when dealing with sharply varying lighting conditions (e.g. shooting birds in a backlit tree, where taking one step to either side can land you in a patch of bright sunlight + a different exposure), having a digital viewfinder is a real improvement as it allows seeing in real-time the exposure changes. Also, just having this all be via a digital screen vs sun-rays passing through a zoom lens direct to eyeball is a real safety measure that's good to have. Same too the ability to use the viewfinder while recording video. Basically all the expected benefits of shooting with a mirrorless camera (and subsequently having "live view" in the viewfinder) are proving to be as I epected
3) When it works, the auto-focus is good for tracking moving objects - Operative word: "when" it works... More on this later.
4) Having 3 (or actually 4, if counting the one on the new-style lenses) dials able to be used for controlling various settings is a big improvement on only have 2! Particularly as the third one can now be mapped to controlling ISO in manual mode, making that mode actually useful if you want to lock in camera behaviours with the other 2 then use ISO to get the desired exposure (i.e. typically underexposing relative to what the camera's metering things the scene requires)
Cons:
This list is unfortunately still a lot longer than I'd like, with a bunch of these being ever-frustrating things that grind you down everytime you use it. (Nothing puts these into focus as much as just switching back to shooting on old DSLR for a change, and suddenly no longer having to deal with most of this crap)
1) Perhaps my biggest gripe has to be how, overall the UX of actually operating the camera for taking photos efficiently + with a smooth workflow have just so many sharp edges as to be a constantly draining exercise in frustration. Granted, after each time I find yet another badly configured default - that when changed make the whole thing several quantum leaps more pleasant to use - things improve, but still... some of these fixes still require too much jumping around to configure each time you need them to be there.
Pain points:
* 1.1) Not enough physical buttons - In particular, I really missing having quick access to:
i) White Balance
ii) AF Drive Speed
iii) Metering point (small spot vs default) - Basically essential for "moon" shooting
Currently though, *all* of these are practically mapped to the same button, and then I always lose time trying to remember which of the 3 dials need to be used to navigate to the other ones.
* 1.2) Unreliability of the EVF staying on, and/or lighting up when wanting to shoot when "on the go"
i) As mentioned last time, not looking square-on at the viewfinder may cause it to blank out due to the sensor thinking you aren't looking at it
ii) There is *always* an annoying ~1 second delay for the viewfinder to actually light up so you can see what you're shooting, if you put the camera down for a few seconds waiting for something interesting to happen. I've recently been resorted to just snapping the first shot anyway without seeing what the lens might see (and often end up zoomed out too much), but at least I don't lose as much time and might get "something" instead of missing the moment completely. (Also, just today, the blank-screen lag was seemingly taking increasingly long to clear)
* 1.3) Lagginess of the display makes fast moving situations (e.g. shooting out side windows of car, tracking birds) problematic at times, requiring more guessing followed by spray-and-pray
NOTE: This is *with* the higher FPS enabled, and at expense of now ending up with half the battery life in some cases.
* Main problem with having the lower FPS in use, is that looking out the window with the viewfinder becomes actively nauseating + also annoying trying to guess / anticipate whether something might be in shot
* Shooting using the LCD makes this not feel as bad, BUT then you have the "Image Review" blankout problem
* 1.4) LCD Blankout / Freeze Due to "Image Review"
DISCLAIMER: Maybe I still haven't found the right settings here
Currently I have the annoying problem that if you shoot using the rear LCD, you practically need to disable the "Image Review" time so that you can keep shooting without getting a hard lockout for 2 seconds after each shot (or two quick ones if holding down to do a "slow" burst). This is one of the two main issues trying to get it usable by laypeople for quick snaps
However, disabling this completely is not good when shooting with the viewfinder, as I'm used to being able to quickly check if the exposure was OK on a larger screen/view (which is still a thing now, as the viewfinder is still slightly out of whack in some ways, despite my best efforts at calibrating them to be more sane)
What I'd like is for there to be ways to control whether the Rear LCD displays or doesn't displays these image reviews based on which screen was being used for framing the shot, and not a single stupid one I have to keep jumping through menus to turn on and off (even after pinning in custom settings)
* 1.5) AF modes complexity == Even worse for getting an "in-focus" shot with a layperson operating the camera - It turns out that despite having so many fancy AI and other multi-point zone methods now available to avoid focusing on the wrong thing, that it's even more unreliable when a layperson tries to operate it (and the fixes for explaining how to use corral it into doing what you want are much harder than before). I'll save the rest of the auto-focus gripes for next sections...
2) Video Shooting is Way Too Hard
Unlike with my decade old DSLR, the new complexities of trying to record video on this modern generation camera are a real step backwards in many regards.
* 2.1) Instead of just picking up whatever exposure you're currently using for photo shooting, it defaults to those settings in the special "C3" mode that you have to manually set + save (and risk polluting / losing your actual defaults). Oh, but sometimes those randomly reset in the middle of a shooting session (e.g. after a brief pause, or something similar)
End result is that now, I've largely just given up and now spend first 2 seconds of each video re-dialling in the exposure I want (while hoping my default WB setting is going to not leave too much of a strong colour cast in the video)
* 2.2) If you instead go to "video mode" where you can have more control (but requires a lot more prep + foresight), you then are unable to take quick photo snaps using the current settings / setup. This means it's better to usually stay in photo mode instead, meaning that the video settings instead suffer.
* 2.3) While you can shoot while watching the viewfinder, in practice, this is impossible as AF point cannot be set or controlled from there (via knobs, dials, or the multi-way input for moving a focus box region around). Instead, you are left with whatever the AI-Auto AF randomly decides to pick up on, and then you have to use the rear LCD to do "tap and refocus" every few seconds to keep it pinned to the your actual target (when it inevitably randomly decides it needs to focus on a nearby branch or other random point "elsewhere but on the target it'd been following seamlessly seconds ago).
This is particularly nasty when shooting with a heavy lens, pointed skywards, and already having to hold the camera combo in a weird way. Requiring a shift in balance to be able to access the screen to tap at focus points to get them in focus is such an awkward dance!
I really wish they'd just let me drive a focuspoint using the multi-direction switch (that I've had to manually enable to make focus-point setting in normal photo-mode bearable + match what my DSLR allowed)
3) Filesizes are that much larger, meaning I've already surpassed last year's total storage usage, and we're not even half-way into the year yet! (Heck, we're only like 4-5 months in, so only a third?)
4) If you delete images off via card reader, on loading the card again, the camera burns battery with lots of "active light" activity flickering away for potentially hours. (I've come to learn that this is probably not such a great thing in terms of card performance / fragmentation, but ugh...)
5) Much more frequently battery charges needed. Am averaging around 800 shots on this per charge, vs easily 3000 on DSLR
6) The new lens mount caps are way too finicky to mount (i.e. they only slot in now if you get the alignment exact within a small region, instead of being able to "just mash until it fits")
7) Dunno if it's my "bird lens", but in several months, I've already ended up with 3-4 very visible dust spots on the sensor that I can't seem to get rid of despite multiple rounds of cleaning.
8) The backlight on the top LCD is useless, as it won't actually light up at all when you really need it in the dark! (Again, they prefer you use the EVF or rear LCD)
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